Blog

Increased demand from rental car companies, strong truck and SUV sales, and recovery from hurricanes in Florida and Texas weren’t enough to push U.S. auto sales into positive territory for October. Sales for the month fell 1.3 percent compared with a year ago as slowing demand made it almost certain that 2017 will be the first year with declining sales in seven years. Full-year sales almost certainly will fall below…

Ford and Nissan posted big sales jumps for October, but Fiat Chrysler and General Motors reported declines Wednesday. The drop by two of the Detroit Three reinforces analyst predictions that September’s big gain in U.S. auto sales would fizzle in October. They believe sales will continue to slow nationwide and fewer people than expected will replace hurricane-damaged vehicles in Texas and Florida. Fiat Chrysler sales fell 13 percent for the…

It’s a two-hour car ride from Heathrow Airport to the small village of Gaydon in Warwickshire, England, home to Aston Martin’s headquarters. The company plans, designs, and build its cars in this office park enclave, down the road from Jaguar Land Rover headquarters, and only a short 45-minute drive from Silverstone, where Formula 1 development thrives. It’s an ideal location: it’s connected to the M40 motorway, an artery that threads…

October was a good month for auto sales, driven by general economic growth and continued vehicle replacement in the wake of hurricanes in Houston and South Florida. Sales are expected to slightly top the 1.37 million cars sold in October 2016 once all automakers release the month’s results. Of those that have reported sales figures, General Motors unit sales were down 2.2%, and Fiat-Chrysler saw a 13.2% drop. But Toyota…

DETROIT (Reuters) – When financial markets surge to new records, sales of luxury cars usually rise, too. Instead, October U.S. auto sales reports on Wednesday showed that a collapse in sales of luxury sedans is accelerating. Consumers have gradually shifted over to luxury sport utility vehicles from sedans in the last decade, but the trend – which has occurred in both the non-luxury and luxury segments of the auto market…

x Embed x Share CLOSE If you’re thinking about buying a new car, it may be your ZIP code that could give you the best rebate deal. Josh King has the story (@abridgetoland). Buzz60 U.S. passenger car sales are struggling, but crossovers, sport-utility vehicles and pickup trucks are soaring.(Photo: Keith Srakocic, AP) Shoppers may finally get a break in the dealership showroom. Although U.S. auto sales remained strong in October from…

British luxury sports-car maker Aston Martin Holdings Ltd. has a Brexit contingency plan: crank up spending in the U.S., its biggest market. “We’ve been putting a lot of effort in the U.S.,” Chief Executive Officer Andy Palmer said in an interview in Tokyo. The reason is the company doesn’t think any contagion will spread to the U.S. in the event consumer confidence drops when Britain leaves the European Union, he…

Ford Automakers will report October US sales on Wednesday. The monthly sales pace is expected to be better than last year’s final record total of 17.55 million. Profitable pickups and SUVs continue to drive the market. This was supposed to be the year that the US auto sales boom finally ran out of gas. After consecutive record-breaking years, with 17.5 million vehicles sold in 2015 and 17.55 million in 2016,…

REUTERS/Paulo Whitaker US auto-sales numbers for October will roll in throughout Wednesday. September was the strongest month of this year for the auto companies. They benefitted as people replaced cars that were salvaged by recent hurricanes. This bump could persist for a few more months. Also, end-of-year incentives for buyers could boost sales in November and December. Automakers on Wednesday are reporting their sales results for October. They surprised…

Simoncini said Michigan’s highest-in-the-nation auto insurance rates have become a cost-of-living issue Lear Corp. has to navigate with prospective employees, especially those who want to live in Detroit and work at the company’s downtown innovation center in Capitol Park. “It’s a huge hurdle for getting people to become residents of Detroit,” Simoncini said. “They just register (their car) someplace else. It’s a mortgage payment.” Michigan’s statewide average auto insurance premium…

Avenir combines options buyers pick piecemeal into one big package.(Photo: Vanderkaay) Buick is doing most things right these days. It is quietly but prolifically making not-ugly SUVs that come with the trappings of luxury but maintain a slender waistline when it comes to pricing. Where General Motors Co.’s Cadillac brand has been very vocal about its moves in the worlds of fashion and art, and its attempt to court downtown…

On any given day, Alphabet’s Waymo runs its driverless minivans through dozens of staged situations on an old Air Force base in Atwater, Calif., more than 100 miles outside the company’s Mountain View headquarters. The company is preparing its cars for the real world. So, a man might jump into the lane, a cyclist might pop a wheelie, a human driver might cut the robot car off. The car figures…

Beautiful cars matter. Weird and wild ones do too. The iconic and the ironic, the outrageous and the fabulous—bring ’em all on. The world needs more interesting cars. I once got out of a Maserati GranTurismo S, a gorgeous sheath of metal from 2008, and an older gentleman hissed at me, “Show off.” He then got into a silver Lexus LS 600h, a luxury sedan that was emblematic of the…

Hyundai Motor Co. has recruited another BMW engineer, this time to lead vehicle architecture development at the Genesis luxury brand as the upstart marque begins to expand its lineup and target international rivals from Germany. Fayez Abdul Rahman was appointed vice president of Genesis architecture development to set vehicle specifications on everything from electronic systems to user experience from the early stages of product planning, the company said…

Ford Automakers will report October US sales on Wednesday. The monthly sales pace is expected to be better than last year’s final record total of 17.55 million. Profitable pickups and SUVs continue to drive the market. This was supposed to be the year that the US auto sales boom finally ran out of gas. After consecutive record-breaking years, with 17.5 million vehicles sold in 2015 and 17.55 million in 2016,…